466 Chapter 12because the initial request is strongly corre-
lated with the final outcome.
Why don’t women ask for higher sala-
ries, raises or promotions, and better jobs
compared to men? There are a number of
reasons. One reason is that men feel like they
deserve more than women. In a study of MBA
students negotiating a job offer, men negoti-
ated a higher salary than women and were
more likely than women to say that they knew
their worth (Barron, 2003). In addition, men
were more likely to say that they deserved
more than others, whereas women perceived
that they were entitled to the same as oth-
ers. A second reason that women negotiate
less than men is that women are more con-
cerned that negotiation will lead to conflict
and concerned that conflict will jeopardize
the relationship with the negotiator. Third,
women are more likely than men to believe in
a meritocracy—that hard work will bring suc-
cess without having to ask for it. Finally, for all
these reasons, women are more anxious than
men during negotiations, and anxiety is likely
to interfere with women’s performance.
Is there a situation in which women are
more assertive in negotiation? Yes—when$0$50,000$100,000$150,000$200,000$250,000$300,000MaleFemale25 30 35 40 45
Age50 55 60 65SalaryFIGURE 12.12 Hypothetical salary of a male
and a female over the ages of 25 through 65 if the
male received a 4.3% increase and the female re-
ceived a 2.7% increase each year.smaller among graduates from historically
Black than historically White institutions
(Renzulli, Grant, & Kathuria, 2006). Is it be-
cause there is less sex discrimination among
Black people? Probably not. It is not the case
that Black women made relatively more than
White women. Instead, men from histori-
cally Black institutions made less than men
from historically White institutions.Negotiation. Another reason for the pay
disparity is that men negotiate higher starting
salaries than women. A meta-analytic review
of the literature on negotiation showed that
women were more cooperative than men dur-
ing negotiation and received poorer outcomes
(d=+.09; Walters, Stuhlmacher, & Meyer,
1998). In a study of over 200 students who
had just received MBAs, women and men
were equally likely to negotiate for a higher
salary when offered a position, but women
received less than men from the negotiation
(Gerhart & Rynes, 1991). Men’s negotia-
tions led to a 4.3% salary increase, whereas
women’s negotiations led to a 2.7% salary
increase. This may not sound like much of
a difference to you, but a small difference
based on a percentage can become large over
time. As shown in Figure 12.12, if a man and
a woman were offered an initial salary of
$50,000 at age 25 and the above-mentioned
difference in salary increase occurred each
year, the man’s salary would be nearly dou-
ble the woman’s by age 65—a phenomenon
Babcock and Laschever (2003) refer to as the
“accumulation of disadvantage.”
In their bookWomen Don’t Ask: Nego-
tiationandtheGenderDivide, Babcock and
Laschever (2003) point out that women are
less likely to negotiate salaries, ask for less
when they do negotiate, and concede earlier
than men. The fact that men make a larger
initial request than women is importantM12_HELG0185_04_SE_C12.indd 466 6/21/11 9:16 AM